Sat 31 October · London
A dark-sky window opens.
Properly dark 18:28–05:00 · 10h 32m
waning gibbous · 63% lit · 2h 35m of moon-free darkness
How we’d play it
A genuinely dark window — galaxies and nebulae are on the menu, and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are well-placed for the eyepiece. The kind of night we plan a full session around.
Plan a night with us →Worth looking at
- MarsBest 05:00High in the southeast — 50° just before dawn (05:00), still rising as the sky brightens.
- JupiterBest 05:00Well-placed in the southeast — 45° just before dawn (05:00), still rising as the sky brightens.
- SaturnBest 21:59Well-placed in the evening (around 21:59) — 40° in the south.
Venus is below the horizon whenever the sky is dark.
Twilight stages & sun times +
- Sunset16:35
- Civil twilight ends17:10
- Nautical twilight ends17:49
- Fully dark18:28
- First light05:00
- Nautical twilight (dawn)05:39
- Civil twilight (dawn)06:18
- Sunrise06:53
All times GMT (local). Moon-free windows: 18:28–21:03.
Not tonight?
Darker nights suit galaxies and nebulae. The Moon thins out toward the end of the week.
Coming up
- Leonids meteor showerTue 17 November · Peak night. Fast and bright, ~15/hour.in 17 days
- Geminids meteor showerMon 14 December · Peak night. The year’s best — up to ~120/hour, bright and slow.in 6 weeks
- Quadrantids meteor showerSun 3 January · Peak night. Sharp peak, up to ~40/hour — brief but rich.in 9 weeks
- Annular solar eclipseSat 6 February · Only visible along a narrow track on Earth — check whether it passes near you (never look at the Sun unprotected).in 14 weeks
- Penumbral lunar eclipseSat 20 February · A shadow crosses part of the Moon — visible wherever the Moon is up at the time.in 16 weeks
Show full detail
We bring the telescope, and we read the sky for you — so the night lands on the right hour.
Get in touch →